Our work

Access to education

We direct our funding at children and young people, especially girls between 6 and 16, growing up in poverty and from low-income families of the indigenous peoples and untouchables in remote areas of Rajasthan. Children from the dirstrict Silora Block are particularly disadvantaged as their parents are mostly impoverished farmers or unskilled workers who live below the poverty line. The children in these families have to help their parents at home or, in some cases, have to support the family by working and having an income. These children are in a particularly desperate situation.

Special support is given to first-generation learners. These are children whose parents have had no access to education. In these cases, the challenge is enormous: to convince parents to allow their children to go to school. Parents often see the short-term benefit of having children who support the family financially. They are unaware that by sending their children to school they will be able to break the cycle of poverty.

Girls more than boys are disadvantaged. Only very few learn how to read and write. At the age of five they have to herd goats, fetch water or take care of their younger siblings. That is why we focus on girls’ education.